1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multidirectional control switch used in a variety of electronic apparatuses including a portable telephone and a portable information terminal such as a personal digital assistant, and also relates to a multidirectional input device using the multidirectional control switch.
2. Background Art
Recently, various electronic apparatuses including a portable telephone and a personal digital assistant have become more functional. These apparatuses use increasing numbers of control switches, each formed of a combination of switches of various operations such as rolling and pressing. Such a control switch has an operating knob used for combined control of the electronic apparatus.
The portable telephone uses, for example, a switch allowing an operating knob to be rolled and pressed. The operating knob of such a switch is, for example, rolled to operate a rotary encoder for selecting a specified telephone number from a plurality of telephone numbers displayed on a display unit of the portable telephone. Pressing this operating knob in a direction different from a direction in which the knob is rolled moves a substrate holding a rotary encoder, whereby a push switch below this substrate is actuated. Consequently, the selected telephone number is called.
Such a switch is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2002-117751.
In the above-described conventional control switch, plural switches of various operations such as rolling and pressing are combined, and one operating knob is used for these operations. This limits placement or structure of each element and results in increased overall space, causing hard size reduction.